


Like a Flame in the Night

by Bagel_Statue



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Candy Kingdom, Cuddling, Happy ending sorta, Love, M/M, Marshall Lee the Vampire King - Freeform, Peace, Prince Gumball of the Candy Kingdom, Sadness, Tears, The Nightosphere, The land of Aaa, Together forever, cake the cat - Freeform, fionna the human - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-24 09:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4914856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bagel_Statue/pseuds/Bagel_Statue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sweet ruler of the Candy Kingdom was in love with a beast from the Nightosphere. They both should have known from the start not to get attached to each other, but things don't always work out that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Flame in the Night

Prince Gumball, esteemed ruler of the Candy Kingdom, was undeniably in love with a vampire.

Not just any vampire; a spontaneous, horrendous, aggravatingly witty vampire that had the exclusive capability to make Gumball’s head spin and heart melt, all in one instant. 

To the Candy Prince, this particular vampire put the stars in the sky, the flowers in the fields, and the color in Aaa, but no one could see the vampire’s good-heartedness except for him. 

The two would have a fine relationship if it wasn’t for the fact that they had to hide it. 

First of all, Marshall Lee the vampire was, well, a vampire. And a mischievous one at that. To be absolutely clear, he spent his time dumping strawberry jam on unsuspecting residents of the Candy Kingdom, then swooping down to the screaming victim and sucking the red color out of the syrup, leaving the poor soul with grey mush dripping down their quivering bodies while the vampire cackled cruelly. 

Gumball’s furious lectures had little effect. 

The second thing that got in the way of revealing their relationship was that Marshall Lee was a male. Gumball was a male. The problem was that Gumball was expected to marry a princess and produce offspring. 

Not only would this cause public outrage if they were to display their forbidden affections, but the residents of the Candy Kingdom would lose all faith, trust, and pixie dust in their Prince. Trust from your subjects, obviously, was a serious virtue to obtain when governing an entire kingdom of sensitive, foolish little candy men and women. If they didn’t follow instructions from a proper ruler without batting an eye, their independence wouldn’t suit them. 

“Marshall,” Gumball sighed, swatting the hovering vampire away from his bed, “not right now. Go home.”

Marshall Lee the Vampire King merely smirked at his sweet-skinned lover and poked the man’s cheek, whispering tauntingly, “Excuse me, dear Prince, but I’m not Marshall. I’m a fairy. Let me sleep with you and you’ll have good luck for seven years.”

“Marshall. I’m not in the mood.” Gumball groaned, rolling over to his other side. A scoff was all that was heard from Marshall before the vampire drifted over. 

“Please, Bubba.” Marshall’s voice had a begging tone buried inside of it, and it made Gumball uneasy. Marshall wasn’t one to plead with the tone of voice. Usually he would annoy Gumball into getting what he wanted. What was he letting on?

“I don’t want to screw, man. I just wanna,” Marshall sighed, dragging his long, grey fingers through his raven hair, “I just wanna lay with you.”

Gumball was silent for a few moments before he sat up, opening his arms to the vampire with a hopeless sigh. It took less than a nanosecond for Marshall to dive into the Prince, wrapping his arms around the pink man with a vise grip. 

“M-M-Marshall!” Gumball gasped, his cheeks reddening as the vampire burrowed his body against the Prince. “T-Too tight!” 

The grip on the Candy Prince immediately loosened. “Oh, right..” Marshall mumbled, falling from the Prince’s lap and onto the unoccupied side of the bed. Gumball frowned. Lee wasn’t himself tonight; come to think of it, he had been a little strange lately… a little less, er, extravagant. 

“Um.. Marshall, is there something wrong?” Gumball said in a soft tone, petting the vampire’s back soothingly. Marshall opened one eye to glance at his lover before quickly shutting it again.

“Go to bed, fruity tootie, before I drain the color out of your pretty pink face.”

Gumball immediately slammed himself down and threw the royal covers over his body. He knew Marshall would never do that, but a threat’s a threat. 

While Gumball’s chest rose and fell while he slept, Marshall’s body didn’t move a muscle as he watched Bubba. Being dead didn’t really mean he had to breathe, so watching that sort of life peacefully drifting through his candy prince gave him comfort. 

Before the sun had the chance to come up, Marshall placed a gentle kiss on Gumball’s lips, gripping the boy’s shirt with trembling hands. He wasn’t sure he could do this. There was no way he could do this. Was it really for the best? No, it was. 

Marshall had watched his friends die for centuries. And now Gumball.. he couldn't watch Gumball get old and pass without him. Not Gumball. 

Then he was gone, the curtains swaying with a nighttime breeze, the window left open. 

 

A day without seeing Marshall Lee, and Gumball just figured that the King was off to cause mischief and would be back when the sun set. 

A week without seeing Marshall Lee, and Gumball was starting to panic. He began impatiently asking, begging his close friends, Fionna and Cake, if they had any information on Marshall’s whereabouts, but they didn’t have a clue. 

A month without seeing Marshall Lee, and tears streamed down the Candy Prince’s face each and every night, trembling hands gripping his handkerchief. What if something horrible had happened to Marshall? What if he had gone into the sun for too long or be attacked by a gang of vampire hunters? But he couldn’t find any leads or sources to where his lost lover was.

A year without seeing Marshall Lee, and the Prince had began to lose hope. His insides were rotting. It felt like an invisible hand had twisted his guts around every time something reminded him of the vampire king: strawberry jam, a red apple, a guitar or a bat. 

And then, ten years came and went. Gumball had never forgotten the vampire, nor had the scars he had left him healed completely, but the Prince could still live a normal life, and that’s all that mattered. 

Decades flew by. The Candy Prince was old; never married, but with adoptive children to take the throne. 

Tattered and lying on his bed, maids came and went to serve him food, relatives and friends visited the decaying King regularly, but everyone knew that the old King’s end was near. His life was almost over. 

The King opened his pouchy eyes, his body weak. Something was different in the room. The curtains were open, flowing with the nighttime breeze. Were they like that before? Perhaps the maid had opened them…

But there was something else, too. A figure standing at the edge of his bed, staring down at the King. The Candy ruler didn’t jump, nor did he feel afraid. He knew who it was. He had always known this day would come..

“Gumball,” a sniffling voice whispered, unlike the voice Gumball had listened to talk about wild cherries and rock music all that time ago. 

“Gumball, I’m sorry.”

The Candy King merely smiled softly, outstretching his wrinkled hand to the figure. Marshall Lee gently took it, curling up beside the old man. 

Gumball didn’t speak. Neither did Marshall. The Vampire King was everything he was decades ago, and there Gumball was, old, about to meet his end. 

Finally, the sun began to peak over a mountain, and Marshall leaned up to kiss Gumball’s old cheek. 

“My heart began to beat again when I fell in love with you.”

The sun rose above the mountain of Aaa. Gumball’s eyes closed forever, a smile on his lips. Marshall’s body disintegrated beside him as the sun’s rays hit him, and the two went out together, like a flame in the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Whaa! I hope you liked this cruddy little one-shot. I honestly enjoyed writing it a whole bunch, but it did make me sad. Well, leave kudos and share with your friends if you want! It did take me an hour or so, hehe.


End file.
